Mindanoo Mistiru means 'What is the Unknown' and Gold From Wax refers to the layers of meaning in Amharic poetry.
Ethiopia has many languages and styles of music.
These recordings were made in the Empire of Ethiopia in 1971. The music recorded in Addis Ababa uses masenko fiddles, craar and bagana lyres, washint flutes and kabaro drums. There is folk music played in Addis Ababa tej beit bars with vocals, craar, masenko, washint and kabaro, Ethiopian Christian songs accompanied by the bagana large 'Harp of David' and Mary Armeede's craar accompanied Amharic sung poetry. There are Afar chants and flutes from the Danakil Desert, Anuak thumb piano, Nuer harp, laments and drumming, a Konso dance and a Gidole flute dance from the Sudan and Kenya borderlands.
Running a record label offers adiversified and challenging field of activity. This is particularly true when speaking of tiny independent re-issue labels where one, two or three guys have to take care of everything. Tracking down musicians, collecting their stories, writing the liner notes, creating the cover artwork, mastering the songs, promoting the release, communicating with pressing plants and distributors, and so on. Most of the tasks mean fun with the exception of one thing which nobody here at Tramp is keen on doing: writing the sales notes.
Far be it from us to praise our release to the skies. Naturally, we are pretty much convinced of the sheer quality of each song, otherwise we would not have invested so much time and efforts into completing those compilation albums. One thing which surprises us is that despite thousands of Rare Groove compilations on the market neither of the songs to be found here has been compiled elsewhere yet. A fact that not only fills us with pride but also determines our claim for the future. As for now we have done our homework and it is time to let the music speak so that the Gunn High School Jazz Reunion, Keither Florence, Robert Cote, Plas Johnson, Charlie Chisholm Boss-tet, and all the others get the recognition they so richly deserve for their talent and work.
When Tramp opened its doors in the early 2000s it was just for the fun of it. A business plan did not exist and nobody involved with the label had studied anything music related. It was just a bunch of crazy record collectors and music lovers with a simple idea: to share their favourite music with the world. Nobody could have known that this would last for 15 years - and there is no end in sight.
Panorama Bar resident Nick Ho¨ppner gets to Work on his second solo album on Ostgut Ton, connecting the territories of House music with the ease of Alt-Pop.
Work as in labor. An axiom that fuels the capitalist system just as the Techno/House scene economy says that one needs to keep oneself busy to make a living. As a musician, things are complicated of course. It's a long way from the romantic idea of creating music simply for the sake of art to becoming a full time musician. Those who have accomplished this feat often find themselves in a professional loop of writing the music, producing it, promoting it (with an info text like this), releasing it and then hopefully selling it. After leaving his full time job as Ostgut Ton's label manager in 2012, Nick Ho¨ppner went fully freelance, focusing on his musically diverse, deep and dynamic DJing in and outside Berghain's Panorama Bar, but more importantly spending more time in the studio. The result was his critically acclaimed debut album Folk (Ostgut Ton, 2015), various 12' releases and remixes, and now his sophomore LP, Work, which, more than ever, lays out his refined production skills and his talent to work the machines until they reveal their inner ghosts: nine new songs that now dodge the dance floor, then fully embrace it.
Work as in body of work. A record is more than the sum of clocked up hours at the studio, but the result of an artistic-creative process. On Work, Ho¨ppner shows his everlasting lust for musical detail, his increasing technical skills and compositional finesse. Work is a very personal, soulful and deep record that breaks through the usual club/dancefloor narrative by documenting Nick's interest for hybrid sounds and combining elements from varying musical genres. Work's lead single 'All By Themselves (My Belle)' is a very atmospheric, intimate and steadily unfurling IDM piece with ethereal synth and vocal pads; on the album it's contrasted by 'Clean Living' with Tram 78, a modern Ho¨ppner club classic: powerful, kick-heavy, muscular, cheerful and uplifting. It's a very personal track resulting from a recent reencounter with an old friend. Having spent countless hours together in Berlin's clubs in ever changing states of mind a decade ago or longer, things have since changed for both towards a more - clean living'. Connecting to this musical vibe 'In My Mind' follows with a slightly darker tone putting emphasis on bassline, percussion and squeaky sound detailing. 'Hole Head' pays tongue-in-cheek homage to Nick's love for UK club music, when a dashing melody of synths and vibraphone is matched with clattering breaks and syncopation. The dubby, mesmerizing 'The Dark Segment' not only impresses with its hypnotic synth figurines, but also by morphing to a shuffling Jazz rhythm towards it's middle part; 'Forced Resonance' uses Oberheim synth brass stabs to dramatic effect; the percussion- and clap-laden 'Fly Your Colours' comes with an irresistible piano melody atop an energetic kick; and finally the album-closing, shuffling but rhythmic, noisy yet bluesy 'Three Is A Charm' featuring the duo Randweg on clarinet, cajo´n and acoustic guitar is a coherent departure heading towards Indie Pop territory. It sees Nick collaborating with acoustic instrumentalists for the first time in his ten-year- spanning Ostgut Ton release catalogue.
Work as in artwork. Staying in line with the Folk album, the visual companion for this record comes from German collage artist Frank Bubenzer. As with the artwork at hand, Bankentsunami, and his other works, Bubenzer cuts up print magazine advertisements and recontextualizes them into new motifs, removing all human depiction from the source material, here as a commentary on the world of business, big money and the banking crisis.
Work as in work it. As a slogan 'work' has always been one of the genre's most utilized paroles, coined and put on wax by pioneers like LNR, Blake Baxter or Steve Poindexter, to name a few. Not only calling for the crowds to get moving on the floor but also to fully express themselves and their unique individuality inside an all embracing environment. A mindset rooted in House Music that has been an integral part of Nick Ho¨ppner's identity as a DJ and producer from the beginning and all through his decade-spanning residency at Panorama Bar. Work it!
A few years ago we received an anonymous email with a link to three tracks and a simple
message: 'Hi, maybe you would be interested in this music.'
It's easy to be skeptical of yet another link from yet another artist in a world overcrowded with them, but listening is our job and so we do it. The songs were instantly striking: extraordinarily slow, somber, and spacious, each vaulted cathedral chord reverberating poetically into the distance, the melodies rolling out like fog across a cemetery.
Captivated, we requested more, receiving a single word in response: Yes.' Then, nothing. Eventually, three months later, we received another email with slightly more information: a name (Irma Orm), a location (Stockholm), and a bit of context (she worked alone, and progress on music was slow but steady ).
Fast-forward to mid-2016: we're informed the album is complete, and it is breathtaking. Hermetic gothic swan songs conjured from funereal piano, twilit ambience, minimalist percussion, and spellbinding vocals.
The mood is lulling and lush but lost in sorrow, stark grey structures looming in the night. Majestic open spaces between notes heighten the melancholic grandeur of Orm's arrangements, blurring the line between lament and lullaby. The songs less end than ebb away,succumbing to their own downcast beauty.
While the story of Jah Wobble, from post-punk bassist to Tube driver to world music explorer is well documented, the fact he founded his own label, Lago Records, at the age of just 23 years old has oft been overlooked. Lago Records was set up by John "Wobble" Wardle soon after his acrimonious departure from college friend John Lydon's Public Image Ltd band at the end of the recording of the Metal Box sessions. Although still young, Wobble had already experienced a music career most would dream of and was experienced enough and singular in his thinking that while now working with both Island and Virgin Records, he did not want to be constrained by the traditional label / artist format and release schedule. With a mindful of music ideas and working with a group of friends and musicians, Lago allowed Wobble to express his wider musical interests that now forms it's own unique document in time. This release takes a collection of songs from the 6 EPs released on the label between 1981 and 1985 and captures some of his best ever music, covering a wide palette including dub, jazz, spoken word and even some pop sensibilities, all held together by his instantly discernable bass rumble. The driving post-punk-dub of Invaders Of The Heart is clear a link to the PiL years, while the psychedelic nature of Long Long Way and Fading offer long, drug-induced meditations. Nocturnal and East take this further with long-form instrumental experiments, before both Voodoo and the now highly sought after Blowout take in (Balearic) pop touches that the mid-80s were beginning to encapsulate. Packaged with DJs in mind as much as for the "Heads", the Lago Years double pack is a revelation to those who thought they knew the Jah Wobble sound and offers a perfect framing of a unique musical journey.
Deconstructed royal-court music from the forgotten kingdoms of the Buganda, reconstructed electronic wedding music, fluorescent pink African pop, crunched 8-bit drum machines and a 10-foot long monster xylophone are just a few of the many sounds of Ennanga Vision.
This post-modern African soundtrack follows London producer Jesse Hackett's heady musical journey into the heart of Uganda - recording with chief collaborator, multi instrumentalist and singer Albert Ssempeke and featuring assorted vocal legends from the north of the country. The music blends a fully electronic sensibility with unusual, hand-crafted, African one-string fiddles, a 200-year-old harp and an enormous, group-played xylophone. It mixes traditional Ugandan folk songs and modern pop forms into a new PLASTIC ORGANIC VISION.
Hackett is influenced as much by the music of the African continent as he is by European electronic compositions and soundtrack scores. The sounds of hauntingly-dark vocoded vocals, crushed electronics, and poly-rhythmic drum machines sit alongside chiming African fiddles, rippling harps and children's laughter. He is a member of Owiny Sigoma band having sung on and co-written a lot of their work spanning three albums. He is also touring keyboard player for the Gorillaz and has released records on Stones Throw, Honest Jon's and DEEK Recordings, to name a few.
Albert Ssempeke is the son of a prestigious royal court musician who played in the days of the old Buganda kingdom - one of more than twenty five musical siblings, Albert is simultaneously an educator, performer and preservationist of this intricate and complex traditional form of music. Here he plays over ten traditional Ugandan instruments including Amadinada (xylophone), Ngindidi (fiddle), Endongo (harp), Ennanga (flute) and many more
Deconstructed royal-court music from the forgotten kingdoms of the Buganda, reconstructed electronic wedding music, fluorescent pink African pop, crunched 8-bit drum machines and a 10-foot long monster xylophone are just a few of the many sounds of Ennanga Vision. This post-modern African soundtrack follows London producer Jesse Hackett's heady musical journey into the heart of Uganda - recording with chief collaborator, multi instrumentalist and singer Albert Ssempeke and featuring assorted vocal legends from the north of the country. The music blends a fully electronic sensibility with unusual, hand-crafted, African one-string fiddles, a 200-year-old harp and an enormous, group-played xylophone. It mixes traditional Ugandan folk songs and modern pop forms into a new PLASTIC ORGANIC VISION.
Hackett is influenced as much by the music of the African continent as he is by European electronic compositions and soundtrack scores. The sounds of hauntingly-dark vocoded vocals, crushed electronics, and poly-rhythmic drum machines sit alongside chiming African fiddles, rippling harps and children's laughter. He is a member of Owiny Sigoma band having sung on and co-written a lot of their work spanning three albums. He is also touring keyboard player for the Gorillaz and has released records on Stones Throw, Honest Jon's and DEEK Recordings, to name a few. Albert Ssempeke is the son of a prestigious royal court musician who played in the days of the old Buganda kingdom - one of more than twenty five musical siblings, Albert is simultaneously an educator, performer and preservationist of this intricate and complex traditional form of music. Here he plays over ten traditional Ugandan instruments including Amadinada (xylophone), Ngindidi (fiddle), Endongo (harp), Ennanga (flute) and many more
5th Birthday comp featuring a host of artistst who've graced the label over the perioid.. Exclusives from Tolouse Lowtrax, Geena, Iueke, Domenique Dumont, . Inoue Shirabe, Raphael Top-Secret and more... Gatefold Sleeve. TIP!
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Made of 14 sketches - each reflecting one of the many shades of the label's catalogue - Five years of Loving Notes features new names as well as those of artists who have been involved with the label since it's very beginning, like Geena or Iueke - responsible for the first 12' released on Antinote.
The music on this compilation covers a wide spectrum of moods and atmospheres, from the dark and raw excursions from Tolouse Low Trax or Iueke to the lush instrumental crafted by Nico Motte and Syracuse's Antoine Kogut; however as the listener gets deeper into the compilation, the whole of the tunes, sitting side by side on the records, start to make sense as they all seem to point towards the same direction. If one should try isolating a common trait from all these songs, one might come to the conclusion that it lies in the way they all speak directly to the listener's emotional receptors, unvarnished and without abusing of producer's 'tricks'.
We'll let the tricky question mentioned before in your hands once you will have been through this 63-minute long testimony of exclusive music by the artists who have been shaping Antinote's sound for five years; from the opening Latvian arabesques from Domenique Dumont to the Pink-Floyd-ian ending from the latest addition to the label, Alek Lee, via Leonardo Martelli's smoggy electro and Raphael Top Secret's ominous talk-over.
It was a tragic waste of a life, but the influence Cochran imparted on those he'd played and toured with, like Joe Brown, Georgie Fame and Marty Wilde, would ensure he'd not be forgotten. And with acts as diverse as the Who, Sex Pistols and Rush reviving his songs in future years, it was certain he would not be forgotten. But who needs an excuse to enjoy Eddie Cochran's music These tracks, some well known and others less so, tie up the first half of his tragically brief but unbelievably influential career. Pull your blue jeans on and enjoy!
Welcome to Nightlife. Johannes Klingebiel's debut on RSS Disco's Mireia Records. An atmospheric journey. Melancholic, yet euphoria-inducing. Johannes' five tracks cast their shadows into the darkness, mirroring patches of light that can be found if you wander out far enough. It's simultaneously the soundtrack of sweaty dancers losing their sense of time and place and the hopeful feeling of a new day during a drive into the first light in the hazy morning hours. Johannes is a studied drummer. He released music on labels like Mule Musiq, Ancient Future Now and Feines Tier. He's also one half of Alma & Mater and travels constantly with the bands C.A.R. and Vimes. Oh and he's a great DJ as well. He probably never sleeps. That's how he manages to capture the magic of Nightlife. The vinyl comes in a screen printed sleeve with hand stamped labels and is limited to 300 pieces. Vital Sales Points: - Nightlife EP is a very good record - You might know Johannes from earlier great releases on Mule Musiq, Ancient Future Now, Feines Tier - Johannes is a good boy - songs from this EP have been featured on the last four Laut & Luise podcasts (~25 000 plays each) with lots of interest for the tracks - people on ecstasy really like it - Johannes recently put out an edit of 'Born Slippy' which is being played a lot by Dixon, John Talabot, Ame, Axel Boman etc.
Re-issue of the seminal 'Dust On Common' LP, from Led Er Est (Sam De La osa, Shawn O'Sullivan and Owen Hutchinson) was originally released in 2009 by the seminal Brooklyn based record label Wierd Records.
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The band's first full-length release showed the three piece clearly breaking out of the minimal synth underground they have been a vitally integral part of since its inception in Brooklyn to create an undeniably contemporary set of highly crafted and restrained, icily psychedelic pop songs.
Synthesizing countless disparate musical influences from first wave British industrial music to house, disco, and the largely unknown cold wave (aka 'La Vague Froide') tradition in Northern Europe, the trax on Dust fly by, straight out of the frozen hot, lonely cold plains of vocalist Samuel Kklovenhoof's native central Texas. After digesting a few songs of this rich dust, the listener can do no other than lie down in the wild weird Laredo bunker to revel in the refreshingly brisk blast of hedonistic analogue pleasure dancing through the airwaves in the sky above...
Until he was about 20, Texas-born Melvin Sparks was a rhythm & blues guitarist, backing Jackie Wilson, Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye as a member of The Upsetters. But Sparks gave up his seat on The Upsetters' bus in New York City, where a chance introduction to George Benson led him to a place in soul jazz history. Melvin played and recorded with Lou Donaldson, Leon Spencer, Bernard Purdie, Jack McDuff, Jimmy McGriff, Idris Muhammad, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Charles Earland, Grover Washington Jr., Reuben Wilson and so many more. Even during the quietest years of soul-jazz Melvin stayed relevant through hip-hop and r&b, a quick search at WhoSampled turns up more than 150 samples of his funky chicken scratch. And Melvin's legacy is heard in contemporary soul/funk bands like The New Mastersounds, Soulive and The Greyboy Allstars, all of whom he also guested with several times before his early departure from this realm in 2011.
This release documents Melvin's final band just months before his death. Organist Beau Sasser and drummer Bill Carbone had been working with Sparks for several years, and, despite the power dynamic - they were in their early 30s, Melvin an elder-statesmen of the genre - the unit was sharp, relaxed and performed Melvin's music with a jovial spirit. The trio played the Burlington, VT club Nectar's regularly, but this night featured two "onlys." Per the recommendation of Nectar's agent they used the "Grippo Horns," the only time Sparks used a horn section in the last several years of his life, and they allowed a multitrack recording of the show. Both were strong decisions.
The tracks on this album, lovingly mixed by guitarist, producer and Melvin Sparks fan Eddie Roberts, demonstrate that Melvin played as well in the final months of his life as at any time. Sparks counts "Whip! Whop!" off at what he said The Upsetters called a "showtime tempo," and peppers it, as well as most of the album, with quotes from jazz standards, pop songs and cartoon themes, all woven effortlessly into the bebop-funk dialect he helped create. He unfolds amiable melodies, patiently and methodically, through his several-minute lead on "Breezin'." And Sparks is audibly uplifted by the Grippo Horns helping him perform his 1973 arrangement of "Ain't No Woman" for the first time in decades.
The debut seances from Crypt Rot drag the listener to depths of morbidity. For sick fiends of Deicide, Dismember, Death, and Dissection.
Southern Lord unleash a torrent of tumultuous filth, having signed Ohio-based CRYPT ROT - formed by several current/former members of Homewrecker — for the release of their Embryonic Devils debut in early 2017. The album's 'Chapters Of Torment' has been issued for early streaming, as the band announces new live dates, including a set at The Power Of The Riff.
Having written and recorded five original songs within a months' time, CRYPT ROT captured these terrorizing, filth-laden death anthems on their Embryonic Devils debut, with each track led by a death-aura segue. For the recording sessions, the band enlisted Bill Korecky at the Mars Compound (Integrity, Ringworm, Homewrecker); the collaboration with Korecky lead to a well-polished, high-gain sound that grasps elements of many genres and crushes its listeners with its ferocity. Upon completion, the album was passed along, ultimately leading to the signing with Southern Lord.
Tropical Odds is the second album by White Sea, the solo alias adopted by gifted American singer, songwriter and producer Morgan Kibby of M83
Born in Alaska, and now a resident of Los Angeles, Morgan fronted The Romanovs before joining acclaimed electronic music group M83 in 2007, co-writing, arranging and playing keyboards on the albums Saturdays = Youth and Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, as well as completing several world tours.
As White Sea, her first solo album In Cold Blood arrived in 2014, a dramatic debut praised by Billboard for its 'canyon-sized hooks, knowingly grandiose melodies and succulent vocals' and judged 'pop's newest break-up classic' by Flavourwire.
Outside of M83 Morgan has also collaborated with artists such as Greg Kurstin, Panic! at the Disco, Mark Ronson and School of Seven Bells, remixed Ellie Goulding and Britney Spears, and composed the award winning soundtrack to Eva Husson's provocative 2016 movie Bang Gang (une histoire d'amour moderne).
New album Tropical Odds stems from an interactive project launched via White Sea's website featuring digital singles and videos released at regular intervals throughout 2015 and 2016. Explains Morgan: 'Generally being able to create and mix and master my solo material within days has given me the direct freedom to share songs I want people to hear. In short, if I write something that I like, I put it out!'
Now gathered together in album form, the musical moods on Tropical Odds range from the sombre reflections of Gangster No. 1 and Yesterday to the hedonistic rush of Stay Young, Get Stoned and Never a Woman, high drama on Bloodline and Arcadia, and heartbreaking balladry on Secret, One Bad Eye and Lessons.
No Average half cooked tunes is going to be fronted with these luv songs
Brought to you by the Big K from the K-MEN Islands
Maximum Versatility meets high level accuracy-punch precision!
t's the utmost honor for Sonar Kollektiv to be in the position to introduce 'Ankhor', the brand new album by Liz Aku. Having recorded all sorts of music with different outfits as well as solo projects over the last fifteen years the Belgian soul singer and highly gifted songwriter definitely earned her stripes and is anything but a newcomer to this game. She seems to have found her own, distinctive voice, after traveling to New Zealand and a far-reaching encounter with Mara TK from Electric Wire Hustle. With 'Ankhor' (a combination of the Egyptian symbol for eternal life 'Ankh' and 'anchor') Aku accomplished a masterpiece of Nu Soul, Jazz and Pop, which will make her join the upper league of the players on the scene. For this cause, several allies and efriended producers have helped her out. With Mara TK leading the way obviously, who co-produced three out of the album's twelve songs. On 'Breathing Underwater' and the sublime, for the whole album groove defining opening song 'The Drum Major Instinct' the native New Zealander duets with Aku
Medical Records proudly presents a special limited edition of all 3 "Forgotten Tracks, Sketches and Unfinished Work 2002-2004" by Martial Canterel as a triple gatefold set. Volume I was released previously in 2013, and Volume II and III are simultaneously being released by Medical Records as standalones. Sean McBride has been producing work under the Martial Canterel moniker dating back to 2002 as well as working as half of Xeno And Oaklander. These tracks capture the allure and depth of Sean's early work exploring rhythms and perfectly crafted pop songs using a very early incarnation of limited instrumentation. Fans of Martial Canterel's early work (think "Austerton" and "Sister Age") will be instantly elated. This is the first time these tracks have been released on vinyl and have been remastered for this release by Martin Bowes at the Cage, UK. Contains special bonus insert with lyrics. Fans of early Martial Canterel as well as other cold wave icons such as A Blaze Color, Snowy Red, and the like will need this collection. Presented on high-quality 180gram classic vinyl in a triple gatefold pack.
Stockholm-based Wolfbrigade announce the news of their ninth full-length album, titled Run With The Hunted, set for release on April 28th through Southern Lord.
Formed in 1995, initially as Wolfpack, after five years they ventured into the new millennium as Wolfbrigade. The band have released an impressive volume of LPs and smaller releases, and have toured widely over the years, becoming one of the premier acts of their genre. Their damning music surges with outcries against human socio-political injustices, yearning for transformation and freedom.
Wolfbrigade's Run With The Hunted strikes with ten brutal new tracks of their trademark d-beat, hardcore-crust-punk fury, elevating both the harsh intensity and the melodic attributes of their music to new extremes of savageness. There's a concentrated sense of urgency across the record, and a sense of dystopia fuelling the scathing vocal wrath. Run With The Hunted was recorded in both Studio Fredman in Gothenburg (At the Gates, In Flames, Martyrdöd), by Fredrik Nordström and Henrik Udd, and in Sunlight Studio (Dismember, Entombed, Grave) in Stockholm, by Tomas Skogsberg.
About the new album, Wolfbrigade declares, We looked to explore our rawness, writing straight-up, in-your-face, primitive songs. On this record, we decided to push the melodic strains even further, but without losing either intensity or brutality. Lyrically we have been inspired by both classic and obscure dystopian literature, finding suitably horrible metaphors for the decline of western society. The search for freedom continues, but this time the path is pointed inwards, into ourselves.'
Run With The Hunted
Stockholm-based Wolfbrigade announce the news of their ninth full-length album, titled Run With The Hunted, set for release on April 28th through Southern Lord.
Formed in 1995, initially as Wolfpack, after five years they ventured into the new millennium as Wolfbrigade. The band have released an impressive volume of LPs and smaller releases, and have toured widely over the years, becoming one of the premier acts of their genre. Their damning music surges with outcries against human socio-political injustices, yearning for transformation and freedom.
Wolfbrigade's Run With The Hunted strikes with ten brutal new tracks of their trademark d-beat, hardcore-crust-punk fury, elevating both the harsh intensity and the melodic attributes of their music to new extremes of savageness. There's a concentrated sense of urgency across the record, and a sense of dystopia fuelling the scathing vocal wrath. Run With The Hunted was recorded in both Studio Fredman in Gothenburg (At the Gates, In Flames, Martyrdöd), by Fredrik Nordström and Henrik Udd, and in Sunlight Studio (Dismember, Entombed, Grave) in Stockholm, by Tomas Skogsberg.
About the new album, Wolfbrigade declares, We looked to explore our rawness, writing straight-up, in-your-face, primitive songs. On this record, we decided to push the melodic strains even further, but without losing either intensity or brutality. Lyrically we have been inspired by both classic and obscure dystopian literature, finding suitably horrible metaphors for the decline of western society. The search for freedom continues, but this time the path is pointed inwards, into ourselves.'
Run With The Hunted
Al Massrieen: Disco, Funk and modernized Arabic Pop from Egypt
In the beginning of Habibi Funk, our search was focussed on vinyl records. Around a year ago though, we got to the point where we realized that it became substantially harder to discover music, that we enjoyed and hadn't heard before. It became apparent that it was time to start looking for other formats. Cassette tapes were the obvious alternative. These were introduced in the arabic world around the late 1970s. In some countries they took over a bit earlier, in others a bit later, but eventually they pushed the vinyl format out of the market in the 1980s. In Egypt this trend already even started in the late 1970s.
Al Massrieen was one of the first bands I learned about once I discovered the tape format for myself. They were really popular in Egypt in the 1970s and the more of their music I found on either tapes or Arabic pirate mp3 sites, the more I was becoming a fan. Only very few bands from the region can match the band's versatility as well as their strive for innovation. Hany Shenoda is the man behind the Al Massrieen band. He is a reknown figure of the Egyptian music scene and has worked with everyone from Abdel Halim Hafez to Mohamed Mounir. Al Massrieen was his attempt to introduce his ideas of modernizing Egyptian music, heavily encouraged by Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt's only winner of the Nobel Price for literature) after discussing his ideas with him.
Al Massrieen's sound goes from lush disco like 'Sah' to psych rock like 'Horreya' or incredible jazz fused pop on songs such as 'Edba Mn Gded'. I was shocked to realize the band seemed to be hardly known outside Egypt, even though I feel they're at least on the same level as Ahmed Fakroun. An relative obscurity which I largely attribute to the fact that their releases never have been pressed on vinyl (apart from a Greece best of LP which wasn't a strong compilation of the group's songs). One way or another it felt like this band and especially their composer, band leader and overall brain Hany Shenoda was in need to get some recognition outside of Egypt. The release is fully licensed from the band and comes with an extensive booklet with liner notes, interviews and unseen photos.
Christopher, Henning & Severin sind AnnenMayKantereit. Sie leben in Köln, sind zusammen aufgewachsen und schreiben heute Songs darüber, wie sie das Leben und die Liebe zerreißt, ratlos macht und beflügelt. AnnenMayKantereit haben sich mit ihren Konzerten von der Straße in ausverkaufte Clubs gespielt.Ihre Videos drehen sie selbst und das erste Album haben sie im Alleingang live eingespielt. Die Fangemeinde ist im letzten Jahr beeindruckend gewachsen,die Videos werden tausendfach aufgerufen und ihre Shows sind immer öfter ausverkauft.Viel Aufmerksamkeit für eine so junge Band, die gar nicht versucht hat, jeden Blick auf sich zu ziehen. Schlagzeug, Gitarre, Bass, Gesang, Klavier,Mundharmonika - das ist das Besteck - und mit guten Songs, viel Blues und Hennings unverwechselbarer Stimme treffen AnnenMayKantereit die Herzen ihrer
Generation, der davor und der danach.
Fabio Borgazzi - aka Fabio Fabor - played literally every known style of music, from baroque to 'satanic' electronic, in his library music albums released during his career which lasted almost seven decades. Born in Milan in 1920, Fabor was one of the great artisans of post-war Italian popular music. Author, arranger and conductor with a classical background, he started writing songs (in the 1950's and 1960's) for popstars such as Nilla Pizzi, Johnny Dorelli and Milva; he then turned to music for theatre, cinema and tv, to which he dedicated the rest of his career. In 1981, when he released 'Galassia M81, Fabor was a veteran in the scene of library music, both as an author and an editor. It was the so-called golden age for the genre, just a moment before the advent of MIDI - which made everything easier, but flatter too, putting an end to the 'Italian Touch". The tracks featured here (credited to the fictional combo The Astral Dimension: Fabor together with his friend Antonio Arena) still have a definite Seventies taste, reminding the wave of German kosmische musik (especially the Darmstad school), but they also reflect the Moog-mania raging in pop music after the big success of Walter/Wendy Carlos with the 'Switched On' series. Avant-garde and kitsch hand in hand, ambient for documentaries and background music for horoscopes... all in sequence, with the only purpose of being used and generating royalties.
(180 gr) Talamanca System are the unlikely trio of Gerd Janson, Phillip Lauer of Tuff City Kids and Mark Barrott. Their sole release in late 2014 became one of the best selling on the International Feel imprint. My Past Is Your Future brings them back together for a trio of magical productions that cumulate the power of their production skills and winks at a forthcoming album coming on the imprint this summer.
Talamanca System are the unlikely trio of Gerd Janson, Phillip Lauer of Tuff City Kids and Mark Barrott. Their sole release in late 2014 became one of the best selling on the International Feel imprint. My Past Is Your Future brings them back together for a trio of magical productions that cumulate the power of their production skills and winks at a forthcoming album coming on the imprint this summer.
Talamanca System's debut set them alight across the dance music press and the follow up catapults their distinctive take on modern dance music back into the current consciousness. The EP delivers a nirvanic state, with My Past Is Your Future's use of delicate chords, cascading keys and effortless groove. This is a divine record, paired with a Beatless Stars Is Space mix that strips it back to its core and the Chukka Chukka Dance mix squares up to the dancefloor with an end of night classic.
Best known for his burgeoning Running Back imprint, Gerd Janson is a DJ's DJ, a connoisseur of dance music with an inimitable style that cross genres. His production partner Phillip Lauer forms part of Tuff City Kids and Black Spuma, who have also released on International Feel, with a style that fuses the rhythms of house music with bold melodies to form structured songs. The result is music that can sit comfortably in many worlds.
Mark Barrott started out in the mid 90's as Future Loop Foundation and since has composed music for numerous films & TV shows and founded one of the world's leading music consultancies. His highly-respected International Feel label has featured albums from the likes of DJ Harvey and Jose Padilla, with a huge portion of the releases dedicated to Barrott's own anonymous pseudonyms. Barrott's Sketches from an Island project has gained support from Pitchfork, the Fader, the Guardian and even the Financial Times for its bold and quirky take on Balearic music.
The three of them form an exhilarating partnership in Talamanca System and this EP gives a snapshot into their forthcoming album due to be released on International Feel in May 2017.
After the successful Calypso Rose's 'Far From Home' album, Because Music will release a two remixes EP for the Record Store Day. Those remixes are made by the South African Mo Laudi. His work is considered to be in the vein of Jamie XX's music. Forget the thorns, because she has them, and without delay pick this (Calypso) Rose who, at 76 years old, looks fresher than ever. Calypso Rose was always a fighter and had to overcome hostility from her father, a Baptist preacher thoroughly opposed to her pursuing a musical career. And she was sexually abused as a teenager, as she bravely confessed in Calypso Rose, Lioness of the Jungle, the 2009 documentary about her. A tireless worker, she composed almost 800 songs, starting at age 13, and spent 17 years singing on cruise ships for the New York-based company Celebration At Sea, before playing on the legendary stages of the Apollo and Madison Square Garden with two of the greatest calypsonians, Lord Kitchener and Mighty Sparrow. Calypso Rose is a fighter indeed: you don't survive cancer and two heart attacks without a solid dose of grinta.
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De-Bons-en-Pierre is a project from Beau Wanzer & Maoupa Mazzocchetti. Beau Wanzer spends the majority of his days sifting through paraffin embedded animal tissues and reading old issues of Fangoria, occasionally breaking his monotonous routine to record in various fits and bursts. As well as solo material, he is also in numerous projects including Streetwalker, Mutant Beat Dance, Civil Duty, and Corporate Park. He's released on many labels including; Diagonal, L.I.E.S, Cititrax, Nation, Rush Hour, and Light Sounds Dark. Maoupa Mazzocchetti is the pseudonym of Florent Mazzocchetti, a French producer based in Brussels. Florent is strictly devoted to a DIY mentality around music production and his sound revives the electro-industrial aesthetic of the late 70s and early 80s. He's released notable productions on labels such as Unknown Precept, PRR! PRR!, Knekelhuis and Mannequin Records.
While Beau was visiting Brussels he stopped by Maoupa's house to jam for a bit. All songs were recorded on April 4, 2016 between 11:00am and 11:00pm, as single live takes.'Crepes' is a 6-track EP, titled so because they ate crepes the majority of the session. Beau says, "There was a bit of a language barrier. We'd mostly just laugh and nod when something sounded cool to us." The equipment set up included a Roland TR-808, TR-606, SH-101, CR-78, CR-8000, two Syncussions and effects. Over 23 minutes of garbles, sludgy synths and leviathan rhythms. Surfing the slippery slope between industrial and electro, but never quite falling in, just a dip of your pinky toe to to test the temperature.
All songs are mastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Housed in a sewage green/blue jacket featuring a crepe-masked duo reminiscent of pulpy VHS covers. Designed by Eloise Leigh and Florent Mazzocchetti. Each copy includes a 2-sided postcard with a photo taken during the recording session.
MFM 019 will be an EP of works by Denis Mpunga and Paul K. Combining elements of traditional African music with experimental electronics, the Belgian/Congolese duo released only a handful of tracks, scattered across a few rare LP and cassette compilations that were put out in the mid eighties by obscure european labels . This release also includes a few previously unreleased songs that were found on the original master tapes
Although this wasn't directed by but Sergio Leone, but by the less known Giulio Petroni, "Tepepa" is one of the best films in the spaghetti western genre, thanks to a perfect synopsis - even if as set in the 'abused' Mexican Revolution of the early '900 - to a trio of exceptional actors and, finally, to Ennio Morricone's soundtrack. The protagonists are in fact the immovable doctor John Steiner, the histrionic revolutionary Tomas Milian and the massive Colonel Orson Welles, a unique and practically unrepeatable combination, however directed in a 'leone-ish' way by Petroni, who often focuses on large panoramas and close-ups on the character's faces. As always, Morricone means quality: for "Tepepa" the Maestro creates a memorable soundtrack, dominated by strings and, curiously, by the acoustic guitar! Reissued several times on CD, this album has awaited for a vinyl reprint for 35 long years! When the film was premiered in the theatres (1969) just a the single 45rpm "Viva la Revolucion / In Mexico I would like" had been released, both songs are of course included here, the second of which is sung by Christy (stage name of Mary Cristina Brancucci) in a very felt and compelling way.
If Aphex Twin and Mike Dred had a kid, they would have called him Analogue Bipolar Boy for sure. Colin Q Smith belongs to the old guard of ravers who grew up to the U.K. and Belgium sound in the early 90's.
Follow up to his must have Tales From An Analogue Graveyard EP' on Acid Night label last year, Into Darkness EP' sees the London based don finding again another french im-print, New Flesh Records, to serve up six wild, untouchable, brutal, old school-acid-industrial songs of his trademark. From the sinister overture of the beat less Into Dark-ness Theme', to the analog madness of Entangled', passing through the evil vision of Sad Robot', ABB blends an obsessive use of analogue synths textures, fusing with his un-limited talent horrific sororities to merciless rhythm constructions.
Many tracks were buried deep in a safe located on a secret analogue graveyard a long long time ago only to be recently unearthed onto the world... The recordings using only old analogue synths and you will probably notice the difference! Not for the fainted hearts, Into Darkness EP' is no doubt one of New Flesh most savages and intense EP's to date. In the AFX vein! Hear it and fear it.
Toby Tobias can be found in the shadows of South London. This is his first offering for the ESP Institute. On side A, 'Gravitator' evolves slowly over ten minutes from a somber intro of supernatural sighs, pulsing machine feedback and techno squelches into an ethereal landscape peppered with dissonant fragments of synth. With side B's 'Right Turn To Nowhere', Toby stretches out even further, flexing a tasteful programming of the 808 while taking the long road to a reverb-drenched crescendo of distortions and expansive string swells. After a prolific output of material for other quality labels around the world, Toby Tobias has undoubtedly re-focused his point-of-view upon his induction to the ESP Institute. These two songs will have you locking up your children at night.
Lagartijeando is the name of producer, musician and DJ Mati Zundel. Born, raised and currently living in a small town on the outskirts of Buenos Aires called Dolores. From a very early age, he was musically curious- experimenting with percussion, charango, guitar, bass, voice, and beyond.
Strongly influenced by his travels through Latin America, Mati's signature psychedelic dance tracks latch onto everything from traditional folk sounds from the Bolivian altiplano to the jungle beats of Brazil. Mati hypnotically fuses his traditional influences (with an emphasis on shaman chant and charango loops) with contemporary electronic beats, creating a sound that once left NPR speechless.
Lagartigeando was signed to the infamous ZZK Records in 2009 (Chancha Via Circuito, Nicola Cruz, etc.) on which he released his first EP Neobailongo- a mix of cumbias with electro and dubstep elements. After releasing the EP, Mati soon took to the road and dove deeper into the music of the Andes, studying charango and various traditional folk styles. In 2012, under the name Mati Zundel, he released his first full length album Amazonico Gravitante, via ZZK as well as Waxploitation (Gnarls Barkley, Danger Mouse) in the U.S.
Some more miles later, Mati released his second LP Cardos Redondo also on Waxploitation, which featured 8 songs recorded across Latin America- an album he calls an 'imaginary sound map of Latin America,'
Freshly into 2017, Mati brings us El Gran Poder via Wonderwheel (Novalima, Alsarah & The Nubatones)- named after an important Aymara festival that takes place in Bolivia and Peru, purely to celebrate family. At these festivals, the community also celebrates their culture and the importance of the collective identity. Like these festivals, the album is a celebratory one, and will tempt any listener out of their seat. The album was recorded in Mati's town, Dolores, outside of Buenos Aires. Once again taking a huge variety of sounds- this time influenced by Brazilian house,afro-brazilian rhythms, and folkloric Andean music. All songs are written and produced by Mati, apart from Lunita, a danceable track written in collaboration with Barrio Lindo.
Bartellow has long been associated with the ESP Institute though Tambien, a trio formed alongside Bavarian cohorts Marvin and Valentino, who have released seminal dancefloor material over recent years. With his debut album Panokorama, we are invited into a completely different world of Bartellow's creation—a place where influences become a melting pot of mood, nuance and texture, and where instrumentation is abstracted from a variety of cultures, including those that exist solely within his imagination. Bartellow has found a way to merge Primitivism with Retrofuturism, identifying their point of intersection and reveling in their union across ten songs. While his academic background as a Jazz musician certainly informs both his progressive approach to composition and non-linear production, it is his obsession with electronics and synthesis that shape his current musical climate. The title Panokorama stems from Bartellow's visualization of the album, a surreal landscape with a foreign presence centrally embedded, a 'panorama' punctuated by a 'ko'—although a hybrid word that reads as nonsense, it somehow feels and sounds just right.
Peter Hunnigale aka Mr Honeyvibes was born in South London on December 12th, 1960. Peter Hunnigale was to develop into one of Britain's most formidable reggae 'Lovers Rock' artist of our time. It was clear at a tender age Peter's main interest was in music and being born of Jamaican parentage, he was exposed and influenced by music of West Indian culture.
Untamed Love is an UFO in Peter Hunnigale's career, recorded at Omega studio (London) and originally released on the Cosmic label in 1986. Some people have no words to describe it. You can call it brit-boogie, rare funk, sick jam, musical bomb, or god jam, whatever it's a typical mid 80's tune with a rhythmic background sound that is captivating and memorable, thanks to heavyweight synth and awesome vocals. The original 12'' vinyl record is still very hard to find and expensive nowadays. If you are about to discover this song, make sure you are sit down when you listen to it because this song will blow you down hey girl I like the way you smile'.
Growing up in Britain meant that Peter Hunnigale was also open to other genres of music and with seeing the popular acts of the day perform on television and hearing the songs on the radio Peter knew what he wanted to be. Peter is also a great musician and did live work with reggae legends such as The Chosen Few, The Pioneers, B.B. Seaton and many others, while earning the respect of their peers as a competent bassist and qualified engineer. He won a Best Newcomer award at the Celebrity Awards in 1987, and won Best British Reggae Album at the British Reggae Industry Awards the same year.
Espen Beranek Holm is a Norwegian musician and comedian, born 1960 and began his music career as a clarinetist. Inspired by early synthesizer bands Kraftwerk and The Residents, he began making experimental pop music. His debut single Dra te' hælvete' was released in 1981 and was immediately banned by national TV/radio channel NRK due to explicit lyrics. This gave the young artist tons of publicity, helping the single spend almost 6 months on the national charts.
Beranek returned to the Starholm Studios in Oslo from June - September 1981 to record nine new compositions. His debut album, Sound of Danger', was released on Mind Expanding Records in November 1981. Nowhere near as accessible as the previous single, the album fared poorly commercially. Withdrawing from the single's fun, kitsch pop, the album is cool and static, driven by thin rhythm boxes, cold synths, and glacial guitars. Taking heavy cues from David Bowie, all of the songs are sung in a nasally English accent, a rare occurrence in Norway at the time. The lyrics are melancholic, but tinged with paranoia. There are also upbeat tracks that evoke a prog or glam sensibility a la King Crimson, Alan Parsons, or Roxy Music.
All songs have been remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Housed in the original jacket featuring red, black, and white lines that evoke a visualized Richter Scale designed by Monica Moltzau. Each copy includes a 2-sided 8x11' insert with lyrics and an autographed press photo of Beranek.
The album was produced by John Congleton (Blondie, Sigur Ros), Greg Saunier of Deerhoof and Xiu Xiu's own Angela Seo.
It features guest appearances by fabled minimalist composer Charlemagne Palestine, L.A. Banjee Ball superstar commentator Enyce Smith, Swans guitar virtuoso Kristof Hahn and legendary drag artist and personal hero of Xiu Xiu, Vaginal Davis.
FORGET was recorded during a period of epic productivity for Xiu Xiu. While writing FORGET, they released the lauded Plays the Music of Twin Peaks, collaborated with Mitski on a song for an upcoming John Cameron Mitchell film, composed music for art installations by Danh Vo, recorded an album with Merzbow and scored an experimental reworking of the Mozart opera, The Magic Flute. All of this frantic, external activity lead to a softly damaged dreaminess and broadened intent that has not been heard before in other Xiu Xiu works.
Standout track, Wondering' is one of the catchiest boogie pop gems in the Xiu Xiu catalog, but like much of FORGET, it still bears an underlying tension that manifests differently in each piece. From the haunted guitar duet of "Petite", the hilariously fraught lyrics of "Get Up," the advanced industrial boxing match of "Jenny GoGo," or the experimental goth explosion of "Faith, Torn Apart", all the songs, in their own ways, build to a roiling boil of a fate in vanishing.
The calligraphy on the cover translates literally to "we forget." It bows to the universality of everything and everyone's inevitable decline and foggy disappearance. Regarding the album title, Xiu Xiu singer Jamie Stewart said, To forget uncontrollably embraces the duality of human frailty. It is a rebirth in blanked out renewal but it also drowns and mutilates our attempt to hold on to what is dear.' FORGET is both the palliative fade out of a traumatic's past but also the trampling pain of a beautiful one's decay.
Xiu Xiu is Shayna Dunkelman, Angela Seo and Jamie "Butch Jenny" Stewart.
For the past four decades, a growing cult of soul music collectors have sought two obscure LPs and a handful of extremely rare 45s released on the vanity record label LAD Productions, Inc. between the late seventies and the mid eighties by the mysterious South Side Chicago singer/song writer Larry Dixon.
Larry's raw songs capture the transition from R&B to boogie-down as disco was rapidly becoming extinct.
They also perfectly illustrate Larry's ability to overcome his environment and discrimination, transcended by his determination to write and produce music. With the support of his faithful musicians, Larry's success was only hindered by lack of airplay and promotion, but his talent shines through.
This is the story of Larry Dixon, his label LAD Productions, Inc., and his friends and family throughout four decades of music in Chicago's toughest neighborhoods.
Jerome Derradji is proud to reactivate Past Due Records - the boogie funk division of Still Music to release this fantastic archive - what many consider to be the Holy Grail - of Chicago Funk, Boogie and Soul.
Progression..., like a spark shooting through fiber optic cable or a bullet train churning through the next tunnel, the acid-techno arrangements of Detroit-based DJ/producer Rebecca Goldberg have a velocity to them that's spurred by reverence for the roots of electronic and techno music conceived in her hometown, from the Belleville Three to 'the Godmother of House Music,' DJ Stacey 'Hotwaxx' Hale.
Palpable in the pulse of Goldberg's latest EP 313 Acid Queen is an urgent and inspired, cool and confident sense of picking up a proverbial torch, of propulsion along with preservation, of continuation as well as re-invention. Born vigorously forth upon the blooms and grooves of her synth scores for these five songs is the sharpest demonstration, yet, of her signature sound and vision.
313 Acid Queen reaches to and re-enlivens the traditions of Detroit techno with Roland's contemporary iterations of the 808, 909 and 303 drum machines, quintessential sonic characters utilized by the region & genre's seminal producers. The title refers, also, to the Detroit area's predominant telephone area-code, as she audibly reaches out to touch the essence of her city's distinct and dynamic neighborhoods and landscapes, most evidently with the field recordings from city streets and the animal populace inhabitants in the majestic Belle Isle Aquarium.
These kinetic, contemplative and coolly exhilarating tracks were conceived to carry on the tradition of Detroit acid techno in the contemporary world. Fittingly, Goldberg's first vinyl release comes on March 13t h (3/13), distributed internationally through Detroit Underground, a multidisciplinary arts collective & record label. Goldberg's fellow Detroit producer Ryan McCray has a deep sound and keen sensibility for acid techno all his own; he fell in love with the 313 Acid Queen track 'Aquarium' and remixed it to be an exclusive bonus track for the vinyl release.
After last years slick selection for the series from MCDE, Young Marco steps up with a great set of obscurities. Top Tip!
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Born Marco Sterk, he certainly doesn't come from a standard DJ background. A former skate rat who grew up loving American post-hardcore and '90s hip-hop as much as early Warp Records, he's been affiliated over the years with Amsterdam institutions such as Rush Hour, Red Light Records (where you'll find him most weekdays!) and, of course, Dekmantel itself. Still, there's no question that he's always followed his own path, even during the years that playing his favorite records meant that he was occasionally clearing dancefloors.
Things are different these days, of course, as Sterk now regularly plays around the globe and has been widely hailed not just for his DJ talents, but also for his digging prowess and uncanny ability to pluck jams out of genres, eras and geographies that even veteran DJs will often ignore.
Still, Marco's entry in the Selectors series isn't some soulless collection of 'Holy Grail' rarities. 'Where's the fun in that' he explains. 'Anybody with an internet connection can check what flavor-of-the-month records are in demand.'
Just like the first Selectors compilation, this is not a mix CD, but a collection of hand-picked, unmixed tracks that Sterk has personally chosen from his own vinyl archives. Moreover, Marco has put together a collection of tracks that represent not only how he plays music, but also how he makes music himself. The songs here are melodic, electronic and bound together by a refreshing sense of naiveté. Nothing sounds overly calculated; the tunes here span several decades and include dollar-bin records, avant-garde records, club records and yes, a few things that collector types have likely been looking to get their hands on. It's not meant to be a grand statement, as Marco would rather provide an honest snapshot of his musical tastes and share a few of his favorite tracks and artists in the proc
Lovin' Mighty Fire' is Howard Williams' third Japanese music compilation for the Ace Records house of labels - this time, for BGP International. Assembled in between his job as a record distributor and his monthly Japan Blues show for NTS radio, the first two have taken a look at the late 50s for a blast of Japanese rockabilly ( Nippon Rock'n'Roll' CDWIKD 313), then the 60s and 70s for a romp in Japanese surf music ( Nippon Guitars CDWIKD 297). Following his retrospective of jazz singer Maki Asakawa for Honest Jon's, this new outing searches for the soul music of Japan, from the early 70s to the early 80s.
Japan has long been known as the final destination for many a collectible soul record. Yet, who suspected that some fine soul grooves were recorded for the domestic market, from ballads, to funk and disco Strangely enough, some of the busiest writers and producers in this field came from a late 60s rock band, Happy End, but on listening to their collaborations, their rhythmic, soulful feel is immediately apparent.
The bluesy funk of Lily, the soul-diva brilliance of Minako Yoshida - represented here in both slow-grind mode and epic disco, the maverick genius of Haruomi Hosono, the lively songstress Yasuko Agawa, and the sultry steaminess of Mari Natsuki, and more. This album finally plants a Japanese flag firmly on the global map of soul.
Big remix package on this 12" for three songs of MOP MOP's latest album "Lunar Love". KALBATA, NICOLA CRUZ, DJ KHALAB and sUb_modU don't disappoint with their treatments on this single and deliver great new versions of the originals.
Optimo Music are delighted to present the second full-length from The Golden Filter, "STILL // ALONE".
After relocating to London and playing shows around Europe for a year and a half, self-imposed pariahs Penelope Trappes and Stephen Hindman delved into creating a two-sided existential opus by renting out old studio spaces around the UK and using mostly analog 80's instruments, machines and effects.
An album about being in love with pure solitude, when STILL // Optimo Music are delighted to present the second full-length from The Golden Filter, "STILL // ALONE".
After relocating to London and playing shows around Europe for a year and a half, self-imposed pariahs Penelope Trappes and Stephen Hindman delved into creating a two-sided existential opus by renting out old studio spaces around the UK and using mostly analog 80's instruments, machines and effects.
An album about being in love with pure solitude, when STILL // ALONE is separated into two distinct sides, record one, STILL, is a hypnotic meditation for the nightclub. Wavy patterns of sound and light bounce off of Penelope's literary vocal bursts, layered over the ominous deep synths and arpeggiators, held together only by a strict 4/4 beat. The rhythm, ironically forcing the body to move, however internally focused and mindful, still.
Record two, ALONE, takes the club offline and into the fringes of raw, odd pop.
Ever-prominent drum machine beats rule, while love and loss permeate the four atmospheric goth songs. Music for dancing alone.
"Behind the cotton wool is hidden a pattern... the whole world is a work of art... there is no Shakespeare... no Beethoven... no God; we are the words; we are the music; we are the thing itself." - Virginia Woolf
